This invention relates to a cylindrical-roller bearing comprising, at the external and/or the internal race thereof, guiding and retaining rim means for the cylindrical rollers.
Up to now, the retaining means serving for the lateral guidance and axial support of the rollers are usually integral with the internal and the external races of the bearing. This results evidently in a metallic contact between the rollers and the retaining means which must be considered as unsatisfactory in view of the friction components thereof. It is, indeed, known to provide roller bearings having cylindrical rollers with loose retaining flange rings of sintered steel, described in Austrian Pat. No. 352,484, which offers advantages in the manufacture and improves the functioning of the bearing in emergency situations; the end faces of the flange rings turned toward the rollers can be provided with lubricating grooves. However, the tribological properties of the bearing are hardly improved, and special steps are required for clamping together the flange rings and the races to obtain an integrated bearing.
Finally, it is also known in many cases to provide an annular groove or the like in one of the races, adjacent the rolling surface thereof, and to snap an elastic ring into such groove, such rings serving, however, as optionally reinforced sealing rings which are to prevent the escape of grease from the bearing and the penetration of impurities into the same, but have nothing to do with guiding or supporting the rollers in the races.